Marie de Vignerot, the Duchess of Aiguillon, outmaneuvered popes and overawed princes; she counseled kings and steered the state; she managed and invested a colossal fortune, with which she raised hospitals, freed slaves, and flung missions to the far corners of the earth; she negotiated treaties, . . . . Continue Reading »
The Church’s respect for the nations derives from her respect for human communities. Continue Reading »
Seen from our enlightened vantage, Nana might well seem the original torchbearer of all the brave new freedoms. In the end, however, uncharitable Nature undoes her. Continue Reading »
The renowned Cardinal Richelieu had more confidence in his unknown niece than any other person. Was that trust well-founded? Continue Reading »
Toussaint L’Ouverture was not a Jacobin revolutionary. He was a Catholic, whose view of universal human dignity was drawn from the heart of the gospel itself. Continue Reading »
Bad reviews killed the poet Keats, so the story goes. Even though the tale has been debunked, it remains popularly repeated. We enjoy the éclat of unjust criticism, especially of the famous, even as we relish pitying the weakness of the oversensitive. The great film director Akira . . . . Continue Reading »
As Chekhov conveyed boredom without being boring, so Michel Houellebecq conveys meaninglessness without being meaningless. Indeed, his particular subject is the spiritual, intellectual, and political vacuity of life in a modern consumer society—France in this case, but it could be any . . . . Continue Reading »
Macron was legitimately elected in the sense that there was no fraud to account for his victory, no constitutional rules broken. As representative of the people’s hopes or wishes, Macron has little legitimacy; and yet he has immense power. Continue Reading »
Nathan Pinkoski joins the podcast to discuss Eric Zemmour and his recent First Things article, “The Most Controversial Man in France.” Continue Reading »
This year, France’s presidential election is being fought almost entirely on the terrain of national identity. Not on the question of who is best suited to govern France, but on the question of what France even is to begin with. So much public discourse circles on the same questions: Are we . . . . Continue Reading »
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